History and Criminology

History and criminology is a combination that brings together two disciplines with a deeper connection than might first appear. History investigates the past through evidence, constructing interpretive accounts of how people, societies, and institutions have changed over time. Criminology examines crime, deviance, and justice as social phenomena, asking why crime happens, how it is defined and responded to, and what the criminal justice system does and should do.

Together they provide both the long view, understanding how crime and punishment have varied across time and cultures, and the analytical tools to understand how contemporary criminal justice institutions came to be as they are.

At the University of the Highlands and Islands, this part-time programme allows you to study both disciplines at a pace that suits your other commitments. The Highlands and Islands setting gives the programme a distinctive character, raising live historical and criminological questions about community policing, land rights, rural crime, and the legacy of Highland history in contemporary social conditions. You will engage with historical methodology and primary source analysis alongside criminological theory, the sociology of deviance, criminal justice policy, and research methods.

You will develop skills in critical analysis, evidence evaluation, and written argument across both disciplines, building the versatile intellectual capabilities that both history and criminology cultivate. The combination develops a long-term and socially grounded perspective on crime and justice that is genuinely valuable in research and policy contexts.

Graduates go on to work in criminal justice, heritage and museums, archives, policy research, education, probation, community safety, and a range of other public and voluntary sector roles. Postgraduate study in history, criminology, or law is a natural next step for those wishing to specialise.